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Classified docs on the loose: the political & national security costs

An FBI photograph of documents marked "Top Secret" on the floor of former President Trump's office in Mar-a-Lago, Fla, found during the FBI's court-approved August 8, 2022 search of the Trump property. (DOJ photo via AP)
Department of Justice
An FBI photograph of documents marked "Top Secret" on the floor of former President Trump's office in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, found during the FBI's court-approved August 8, 2022 search of the Trump property. The FBI-redacted image was included in a Justice Department filing. (DOJ photo via AP)

Today, a conversation about classified documents and how they keep turning up in places they don’t belong — such as the Mar-a-Lago, Florida, estate of former President Donald Trump. The latest revelation in this regard came on Tuesday (January 24), when it was revealed that lawyers for Mike Pence discovered what they described as “a small number” of documents in Pence’s Indiana home.

Last Friday, the FBI conducted a 13-hour search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and found an unknown quantity of documents. These are in addition to the material discovered earlier in his garage and in a room adjacent to the garage at the home, and at an office he used in Washington after his tenure as Vice President.

Beyond the initial questions of how these classified documents were removed from their original, secure filing locations — and for what purpose — there are the larger questions of who’s keeping track of these documents, and is our national security at risk?

On Midday today, Tom speaks speak with two individuals with unique perspectives on those questions.

Tyler Pager (left) is a White House reporter for the Washington Post; Matthew Connelly is a professor of history at Columbia University and the author of a forthcoming book on how the government manages its state secrets. (Pager photo via WashPost/Connelly photo (c) Andrew Steinman)
Tyler Pager (left) is a White House reporter for the Washington Post; Matthew Connelly is a professor of history at Columbia University and the author of a forthcoming book on how the US government manages its state secrets. (Pager photo via WashPost/Connelly photo (c) Andrew Steinman)

Tom's first guest is Tyler Pager, a White House correspondent with The Washington Post since 2021. He previously covered the White House for Politico, and reported on the 2020 presidential campaign for Bloomberg News.

Tyler Pager joins us on our digital line from the Post newsroom in Washington, D.C.

Prof. Connelly's latest book will be published on February 24 by Penguin/Harper Collins
Matthew Connelly's latest book will be published on February 24 by Penguin/Harper Collins

Then, Tom speaks with Matthew Connelly, a professor of International and Global History at Columbia University and an expert on the US government's system of document classification. The author of several books on political history and international affairs, his latest — due to be published next month — is called The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals about America’s Top Secrets,

Professor Matthew Connelly joins us on Zoom from New York.

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Host, Midday (M-F 12:00-1:00)
Teria is a Supervising Producer on Midday.
Rob is a contributing producer for Midday.